Song of Stone and Silver
by Higuchimon
Summary: A moonlit night. A clearing of rock and wood. A song plays. By song and silver moon, three people come together: a daughter of the moon, a rock spirit, and a mortal musician.


**Story Title:** Song of Stone and Silver  
 **Characters:** Yuzu, Masumi, Selena|| **Pairing:** Yuzu x Masumi x Selena  
 **Word Count:** 1,382|| **Chapter Count:** 1/1  
 **Genre:** Romance, Fantasy|| **Rated:** G  
 **Challenge:** Diversity Writing, D83, an AU; Pairing Diversity #13, spark; Yu-Ri-Oh Fic Exchange  
 **Notes:** I had two lovely stories for this 'ship I made attempts on but due to plot being overly complex in both of them, I put them on the back burner, and did this little thing. I will probably return to it one of these days when I have more energy for it.  
 **Summary:** A moonlit night. A clearing of rock and wood. A song plays. By song and silver moon, three people come together: a daughter of the moon, a rock spirit, and a mortal musician.

* * *

Silver spears of moonlight shot downward, filling the forest clearing with light. Not so bright as daylight, but clear enough to see by, especially if one were a creature of magic.

Especially if one were a daughter to the moon.

Selena shivered as she stepped onto the soil, so unlike what she knew at home. But she'd expected that. She could feel a bit of a chill through her slippered feet, and had expected that as well.

What she hadn't expected was the soft hum of music all around her. It wasn't a tune that she'd ever heard before, but it sang to her veins and her heart and her soul and she looked around to find out who it might come from.

Not that far away, she found her answer: a lovely young woman seated on a flat stone, a flute in her hands, from which the melody flowed.

Music had one effect on the children of the moon. Selena spun in a circle, her heart racing at this new accompaniment, and began to dance, the old and tried and true gift of all those who came from the moon.

She soon discovered she wasn't the only dancer there, though. From a spray of rocks there arose a third woman, with hair dark as night and eyes bright as gemstones, who leaped out as if called by the music alone.

For a few moments the three gazed at one another, each frozen in her own way. Then the musician smiled at them both, raised the flute back to her lips, and played once more. The tune wasn't the same, but Selena found she liked it as much as she did the first.

This one sang to her of friendship, of peace, of glory and of pleasure. So she danced that as well, though such things weren't thoughts she had often. Tonight she set aside her arms and threw herself into the dance created by the singer of the earth.

The rock spirit – for what else would such a one be – tilted her head only for a few moments, then began to dance as well, her movements matching Selena's and matching the spray of the song. There were no dancers who could outdance the children of the moon, but this spirit certainly gave it her very best try.

Selena held her hands out to the rock spirit and the other took them and the two spun around one another, Selena showing her how to move in a way that matched the music and was different at the same time.

There were no words between them. There didn't need to be, not now. The musician played and played, until finally she lowered her instrument and shook her head. She was too tired to go on.

The rock spirit came over to her, worry in her gem-like eyes, and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Yuzu?"

It wasn't a word Selena understood, but she realized it for a name when the other looked up and smiled with a touch of weariness. Most of what she said Selena didn't understand, but she picked out another that she thought must be a name as well: Masumi.

Light as a moonbeam, she made her way over to the two of them and gestured for their attention. Indicating herself, she said, "Selena," then indicated them, wanting to be assured of their names before she tried anything else.

Just as she'd expected, each conveyed their name, the musician Yuzu and the rock spirit Masumi. She nodded, before spinning back into a dance, one shorter and quicker, but rich with magic, dancing their names with the way she moved, spinning the web of magic strong.

When she came to her rest one more time, she faced them. "Can you understand me?" She thought she'd spun the magic right. But it wasn't a spell she often had reason to cast.

"What -" Masumi drew herself up at once, hand falling to a dagger hidden at her waist. "Who are you? What did you do?"

Yuzu rested a hand on her. "I don't think she's going to hurt us. She's had plenty of time if she wanted to."

"I am Selena, daughter of the moon," Selena said. She didn't fear Masumi's anger. A rock spirit could not touch the moon's daughter. "I came to explore and I heard your music when I arrived."

She needed to say nothing more. Both of them relaxed, and Masumi's lips made a small twitch.

"Her music is what called me the first time we met. I'd never heard anything like it before."

"Nor I." Selena faced the two of them, wishing to know so much more about them, to see them every day and every night. She'd never encountered anyone that she longed to see again with such strength after only a short dance. But dancing was how the moon's people communicated in the first place. Perhaps it wasn't so strange after all.

Yuzu's cheeks scorched red, a sight Selena hadn't seen that often. "Seeing you two dance to what I'm playing… that's better than anything." She hesitated for a moment, then spoke again. "If you want to explore out of here, I can show you around. I live in the village over there." She nodded to where the sun would rise come dawn. "No one knows I come out here except my best friend and he's kind of busy tonight anyway."

She glanced at Masumi. "You can come too. Maybe we can visit your city?"

"The moon's daughter underground?" Masumi tilted her head back and eyed Selena. "Can you do that?"

Selena held back a shiver and kept her head up high. "I can do whatever I want." The thought of an underground city sent a shiver through her. She'd never been underground before. But as much as the thought teased her, she wasn't fully free to follow her own will. "But I have to be back before the moon sets, so I can go home."

As much as these two called to her heart, she would not tell them the terrifying truth in this regard: that a daughter of the moon caught on mortal lands for a full day and full night lost her right to return home, becoming mortal forevermore.

If she chose that, she would do so of her own will, not because of being too foolish to return home at the proper time.

"Can you come back another night?" Yuzu asked then. "My village isn't that big, but Masumi's city is, so it would take a while to look through it anyway."

"I can return only during the full moon," Selena admitted. Only then would the spells to bring her to this world work in the first place. "But the full moon lasts three nights."

"Then you can come visit my place tomorrow night and the night after," Masumi declared. Then she took another look at Selena. "If that's what you want."

Selena looked back at her. To do something so different, that none of her family or people ever had… she ached for something like that. Doing so would prove that she could become the true spirit of the moon one day, if so she desired.

"I do." She would also get to know them a little better doing so, and that called to her heart above all else.

Yuzu held out her hand to her, and Selena helped her to her feet. Yuzu's skin was warm against her own, and Selena wished she could hold on forever.

"I wish you could see it by daylight," Yuzu said, starting for the far side of the clearing. "Most people are going to be asleep at this time of night."

"I'd rather go there by night myself," Masumi said, falling in on Selena's other side. "Too many people around and they all want to stare at you if you're even a little different."

Yuzu laughed, a sound as silvery as the moon itself, and Selena looked forward to seeing just what kind of places made these two, so different on the one hand and so alike on the other.

She'd come down here to learn and to explore, and there wasn't a single regret in her decision, not now and not ever.

 **The End**

 **Notes:** Whew. Hope you liked it!


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